Part Six - Tithing and giving and it's on Impact Revival
2 Corinthians 9:6 KJV
6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
I want to begin this lesson by asking a question...
Is revival directly connected to our tithing and our giving?
I want to set out to answer that question for you today:
One of the most frustrating thoughts that I deal with as a pastor is, "Where is the money going to come from."
· Lord you called me to this city for the purpose of revival.
· You have commissioned the church to go out into the highways and byways to compel people to come.
· This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all nations for Your Name sake.
· Lord you said that we need pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists, and apostles.
· We need them for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body.
· We need land, buildings, and ministers to house this revival.
How are we going to accomplish Your will without the finances that we need?
I believe that God is upset that we even have to bother ourselves with that question. Nevertheless, the question still exists:
How can we have revival without the proper funds?
The answer is, we can't.
It takes money to have revival. Just like anything else in our world takes money, revival takes money.
Even while I am writing this chapter, my wife has asked for the approval of funds to be released for a myriad of expenses for our church building. And guess what, our offering came nowhere close to covering those expenses.
· I am not complaining, just stating the truth.
· In fact, there are many other men of God who are struggling much worse than I am.
· There are many other ministries that are suffering and struggling with financial ruin.
Why is that? Could it be because only four percent of professing Christians tithe back to the Lord. Is it any wonder the church is struggling to have revival?
We are not having revival because we are too worried about the bills: Money that should be used to expand the ministry is being used for; electricity, gas, water, heat, the mortgage, repair and so on.
· Many of you pastors can't even think about taking a salary, much less hiring a youth pastor.
· And what about missions?
· How can you afford to do that?
It is the same old 80/20 rule, 20% of the people carrying 80% of the burden. That was never the plan of God for His kingdom.
The bible says...
Matt 6:21 KJV
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Our heart follows our treasure, and since America is not putting their money into the Kingdom of God, their hearts are not their either.
Tithing is not simply about money, it is an issue of the heart. God is trusting us to faithfully manage His funds. If we can't manage the ten percent, how could God ever trust us with more?
Luke 16:10 KJV
10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
Our tithing and our giving is directly related to revival! He can't give us any more if we can't handle what we already have!
If we want to grow on a spiritual level we have to be faithful in the small things.
Here is where the problem lies, a great percentage of Christianity does not consider tithing or giving a small thing...to them it is a huge obstacle.
· Try preaching about money at your next service and watch how uncomfortable people get.
· It will get quiet very quickly.
· Speaking about money touches a delicate nerve in people that can immediately set them against you.
A discussion of money may well shut the ears of your listeners before you ever get a chance to teach them.
Frank M. Hubbard said, "When a fellow says, 'It ain't the money, but it's the principle of the thing,' it's the money."
· It is almost always about the money.
· It is the money that makes people nervous.
· It is the thought of owing God that makes people squeamish.
It ought not to be that way, but it is.
I was a first hand witness to how it ought to work in the kingdom of God...(your own testimony would work better here)
I grew up in a pastor's home in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. For a long time, I can remember our church being a small church. Sometimes there were only seven people in attendance, and they were my two brothers, my two sisters, myself, and my parents. There was not a lot of money generated by our church.
Our church building was fairly small, it accommodated about one hundred people max. My parents had started a daycare in the basement that helped support our family and the church. They worked nonstop at both the day care and the church. It wasn't until I was about fifteen years old that our church had grown to the point of needing a new building. Not only did we need a new building, we needed land. Where was the money going to come from?
The year was 1981, we were in the middle of a terrible recession, and we needed about five hundred thousand dollars to make everything happen. I didn't know how my dad was going to do it.
Even though I was only fifteen years old at the time, I understood that asking for that kind of money, in the middle of a recession, from a small group of people, was going to be a huge challenge for my father.
GM had three huge factories in our city, and the city of Oshawa was the headquarters for General Motors of Canada. The GM plants, and all of the related industries in our city, employed some thirty thousand people. Yet during this time, many of them were laid off because of the recession.
Many of the men in our church were unemployed, nobody had any money to speak of, and speaking about money was a very risky and touchy thing to do during this recession. So to try and raise a half a million dollars, in my opinion, was totally insane.
My dad though, had faith that I didn't have, and he set out to accomplish the plan of God for our community with a boldness, and a faith in God to do the impossible.
I can remember the first service when he presented the need to the people, I felt embarrassed for him, and I wanted to slink down in the pew I was sitting in. I remember wondering if the people were going to get up and walk out on him that day.
Then something totally unpredictable and amazing happened, my dad began the process by pledging five thousand dollars that he didn't have.
Then he made this statement, "Money is not our problem!"
Of course, we all knew that money was everyone's problem at the time, so the whole church laughed at his statement thinking it was kind of a joke. My dad laughed along with them for a moment then proceeded to make another statement, "We don't have any money, so how could it be our problem?" At that point they realized where my dad was coming from, it struck a chord in the hearts of every person in the building that day, and every person broke into uncontrollable laughter.
Here we were, all broke, unemployed, in the middle of the worst recession since the days of the 'great depression', and my dad, our pastor, was telling us that money was not our problem. At the same time he was asking for half a million dollars to purchase property and build and new church building.
The people saw the impossibility of the situation, and saw that my dad had a joyful and cheerful exuberance about it all, and it made them laugh in the face of the enemy.
We all suddenly realized that we didn't have any money, so it really wasn't our problem...this was God's church so this was God's problem!
I think it dawned on every person in the building that day, that this was going to be a total faith in God thing. The faith of my father began to rub off on all of the people, and his statement, "Money is not our problem" caught on and became the slogan for our building program over the next year and a half.
That very first day, people who had no money, no job, and just a little bit of faith, began to cheerfully pledge huge amounts of money to a cause that a man of God had a vision for.
I have to admit, as a fifteen year old somewhat skeptical preachers kid, I got pulled in as well. My brothers, and sisters and I began to pledge money that we didn't have right along with everybody else in the church. It was an amazing and miraculous time for our city.
My dad and mom had faithfully labored there for about seventeen years up to this point, and to see the faith, and joy of the people on that day was an unforgettable experience for me.
Over the course of the next year and a half, my dad would get up during church and say, "Money is not our problem." Every time he said that, the people would be pulled out of the circumstances of their lives, and laugh with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It always reminded us that God was in control of our lives and our finances.
My dad would then take up another faith offering for the building project, and every time, people would cheerfully give to the Kingdom of God. Month after month offerings began to pour in to the church, and it was not uncommon for this group of seventy people or so to pledge thirty thousand dollars at any given service.
People began to see what their sacrifice was doing. They saw the land, they saw the blueprints, they went to the town council meetings and watched my dad persuade them to allow a church on the piece of land that we had purchased. It was all happening right before our eyes, this was a miracle of God that nobody could deny.
The scripture rang true, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Those that were skeptical in the beginning, began to see that the peoples sacrifice was making a difference, and soon they began to give to the cause as well. The more the people gave, the more their hearts were pulled in to the work of God in our city.
About a year and a half after it all began, our people marched from our old location at 320 Ritson Rd. South, to our new location at 700 Ritson Rd. North in the city of Oshawa. It was about a three mile walk to our new building, and every person in the church took part in that victory march on that beautiful Sunday morning in 1982. We made a statement to our city that day, the statement was that God was in control, and truly money was not our problem.
What was humorous to me was that in the years that followed, everywhere my dad travelled, whether it be to camp meetings, missions conferences, or special services of any sort, my father was asked to take up the offering in those services.
Other men of God were simply trying to get the faith of my dad to rub off on their own people. What was really amazing though is that it worked. Wherever he went, he would use the same slogan, "Money is not our problem." People would break out in spontaneous but heartfelt laughter, and then my dad would give the first pledge, and soon everyone else would follow. My dad was able to raise record amounts of money all over the nation of Canada because of his faith and his attitude towards giving to the kingdom of God. Cheerful giving is contagious, and God blesses a cheerful giver!
In the worst recession of our day, God built a powerful revival church in our city...in the space of about two years, our church grew from seventy people to almost three hundred in attendance every Sunday.
It all started by a man of God responding to the vision that God gave him, and a few people cheerfully but sacrificially giving what they did not have!
The bible says, 'The Lord loves a cheerful giver.' We really should desire to please the Lord with our attitude of giving to His Kingdom.
If we really want to be the 'salt' of the earth, then we need to embrace tithing and sacrificial giving like we never have before...it is God's financial plan for His kingdom.
Matt 9:37-38 KJV
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
We, as the church can't stay where we are any longer, the harvest is already white, and the bible says that the laborers are few.
· Are the laborers few because the tithe is few?
· Is the church struggling to reap the harvest because of her struggle to pay tithe?
To a large degree, I believe that the answers to both of these questions are yes, and yes.
Revival in the Old Testament
In one of the previous chapters, I shared the story of King Hezekiah tearing down the high places of worship, and restoring the temple of God for its intended service.
· It had been years and even generations since the people had ever considered God's laws.
· They had never even celebrated the Passover.
· They certainly did not pay their tithes.
Yet as soon as the King instructed them to pay their tithe they responded without measure.
2 Chron 31:4-8
4 Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord.
5 And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the fields; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.
6 And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord their God, and laid them by heaps.